NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adult offspring of people with
type 2 diabetes are more aware than their parents that they
face an increased risk of developing the disease, according to
a new study from Japan.

A person whose parent has type 2 diabetes is more likely to
develop the condition due to both genetics and lifestyle, Dr.
Keiko Kazuma of the University of Tokyo and colleagues note.

To understand how people with diabetes and their relatives
perceive this risk, the researchers surveyed 164 patients with
type 2 diabetes and their offspring, none of whom had type 2
diabetes or prediabetes. All were asked whether the offspring
were at increased risk of type 2 diabetes due to lifestyle,
family history or overall risk.

Among parents, 40 percent said their sons or daughters were
at increased risk of developing diabetes due to their lifestyle
habits, while roughly half said that they were at increased
risk due to family history or from an overall perspective.

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About half of offspring said they were at higher risk of
diabetes due to lifestyle factors, while nearly three-quarters
said family history increased their diabetes risk and about 63
percent said they had an increased risk of diabetes from an
overall perspective.

These findings may reflect "self-serving" thinking among
type 2 diabetic parents and their offspring, the researchers
suggest. That is, parents may minimize the role of family
history in the disease in an attempt to downplay their role in
passing the disease along to their children, while offspring
may want to avoid personal responsibility, so they in turn will
say heredity is more important than lifestyle.

"If patients are to inform their offspring about disease
risks more effectively, their own potential feelings of guilt
need to be tackled first," Kazuma and colleagues say. "If
offspring are to take a more active stance toward prevention,
realization of the importance of their own actions is
particularly important in terms of risk."